[R. Nemo Hill]

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Deity


My live-and-let-live-ness
tells me: mind your own business.
All your altars remind me
to take less, to give less—
yet your prayers have defined me

and I am a mountain tiger.

Virgins undressed
and slathered with scent!
Fair boys who consent
like wheat to be threshed!
I ask their forgiveness—

for I am a mountain tiger.

I’m wild and untamed
and I cannot be named
by these sins you’d redress
through incense and flame.
Uncursed,
...............unblessed—

I ask your forgiveness.
I am a mountain tiger.
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